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Richer Resources Publications

Classical Reference Library

Greek Comedy

Explore the plays, characters, humor, satire, and social criticism of ancient Greek comedy, from Aristophanes and his contemporaries to the political and cultural world their works reflect.

GREEK COMEDY

On Aristophanes’s The Birds

Ian Johnston examines Aristophanes’s The Birds as a satire of Athenian ambition and imperialism, tracing how Pisthetairos’s search for escape and freedom gradually becomes a pursuit of power, domination, and control.

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GREEK COMEDY

On Satire in Aristophanes’s Clouds

Ian Johnston examines how Aristophanes uses satire in The Clouds, tracing the play’s shifting targets from Socrates and the Thinkery to Strepsiades and, ultimately, the Athenian audience itself. He explores the social function of laughter, the manipulation of language, and the increasingly troubling implications of the play’s comic attack.

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